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The Seer
The Seer is the second chapter featured in Fable: The Last Hero. The Seer Gabriel didn't know if the burning smell came from the scent of charred flesh or the wood crackling in his campfire, but either way, he didn't care. He had grown accustomed to it. A half century had passed since the Corrupter sought to make Albion his own, and during that time, Gabriel had been a wanderer, traveling far and wide in search of wisdom and knowledge. To the average Albionite, Gabriel, although blind, was an accomplished Will user, and one of the last remaining Will users in Albion. In a time when Reaver Industries was practically everywhere, promoting new technologies over the magics of old, people saw Will as a thing of the past, grouped in the same category as Heroes and the Old Kingdom. People like Gabriel were rarities, outcasts in an ever-advancing world. In the 50 years since the Corrupter's attack, the Will user had traveled across Albion, Samarkand, and Aurora, honing his abilities and learning new spells. While in Samarkand, he met Garth, the 200-year old Hero of Will who fought alongside the Hero of Bowerstone during his quest to kill Lucien Fairfax. Garth managed to extend his life due to his immense amount of discipline and ability in Will, but was dying by the time Gabriel met him. Despite this, Garth was still able to tutor the former Dweller in the ways of the mage before passing on. With this newfound power, Gabriel was able to perform many feats Theresa could, such as predicting the future, manipulating events in his favor, and even being able to read or detect movement without eyesight. This was what had enabled him to defeat the bandits who had made the fatal mistake of attacking his camp in Mistpeak Valley. Gabriel thought of what he must look like to people as he warmed his Gauntlets over the flames. I must be a prime target, he thought as he reached for more twigs. Young, blind, and all alone in the wilderness, covered in silk robes and fine jewelry. It was true. Gabriel resembled Theresa in appearance: red, flowing robes adorned with golden bands, expensive-looking Gauntlets bound to him by blood, and a dirty blindfold covering his colorless eyes. He was now akin to her in discipline as well. In addition to remarkable virtue in Will and the ability to see into the future, Gabriel also knew exactly what was supposed, when, where, and how. He was able to predict who would be flogged in one of Reaver Industries' many factories the following, how many times, how many lashes the victim would have on their back, and where this all occured. Yet even with all of this insight, what he would discover in his later travels would shock him completely. Gabriel was sleeping in his camp in Brightwood one night when he had a strange dream. In the dream, Gabriel was standing beside a wraith of a man, old and withered, covered in a blue cloak and golden mail. His fingers, pale, skinny, and frail, held in them a crown made of solid gold engraved with a symbol similar to the ones found on Cullis Gates. The man's hands reached up to place the crown on the head of an obviously younger man, who was draped in an ebony-colored cape and dressed in royal blue robes. He wore a steel breastplate embroidered with golden swirls and leaf motifs, but most intriguing of, the man had a small, glowing seal that was the same as the Cullis Gate and crown symbols on his right shoulder, placed on a strap crossing his body diagonally. Gabriel about-faced and observed a large crowd of cheering and applauding villagers in what appeared to be the main area of a large castle. At the forefront of this gathering appeared to be few people of special significance. There were two women, one middle-aged and one a young teen, who appeared to share the same features as the young man being crowned. Standing next to them was a woman clothed in attire similar to that of the man, suggesting some sort of consort status. There was also a female Auroran dressed in traditional Auroran robes, a rather large, dark-skinned man with an enormous physique, and another female, this one pale with tattoos on both arms and a flower tattoo beneath her left eye. Finally, as he turned to his left, he saw a man dressed in the exact clothing as the young man, albeit very old, with a long, shaggy gray beard. He had his arms crossed and was looking up at the younger man, smiling. Gabriel took note that the elderly man bore a striking resemblance to the previous Hero King if he was old, and that this person and the young man being crowned also looked similar to one another. Gabriel stared in awe as the monarch was bathed in glowing white light, an aura comparable to that of a god, and the crown was placed upon his head. The ancient man removed his fingers, then turned to the crowd and raised his arms to the ceiling. "All hail the new King of Albion!" he proclaimed to the people. "M-" Gabriel woke abruptly, covered in a cold sweat. Breathing heavily, he reached for his water pouch and ravenously gulped down the last of it. After resting to catch his breath, Gabriel sat and racked his mind, trying to make sense of the dream. Other than the elderly man who vaguely resembled an older Hero of Brightwall, no person featured was recognizable to him. He remembered seeing a small child during his journey through Deepgorge and Bastion that appeared to be there in the castle, albeit a teen. Using logic, Gabriel reasoned that this couldn't possibly be the same girl, so he decided that the woman standing next to her must be the small child he saw, and the girl was her daughter. Since the young man also shared the same features as the woman, he concluded that the woman was the young man's mother. Inferring that there was a high possibility that these people still lived in Bastion, Gabriel set out for Brightwood Tower, using the Cullis Gate there to transport himself to Miremoor, where he rebuilt an ancient Cullis Gate built and used by Heroes. From there, he made his way through the sparsely populated Edgelands, fighting off hobbes and bandit ambushes as he traversed to find this man.